Victoria Hale, Medicines360′s CEO, believes the pharmaceutical business model is broken. Hale presented at the Unite for Sight conference in New Haven and informed delegates that pharma companies profit excessively from medicine sales and enourmous marketing budgets shadow R&D expenditure. Furthermore, she believes that society should purchase medicinal products from companies that benefit humanity.
Talking about business models, Hale presented how Medicines360 operates, but if you take a closer look, how radically different is her business model compared to those of many pharma firms? Medicines360 diversifies its income and is partly dependent on sales for its financial sustainability – ditto for other pharma firms. Her business focus is medicines for neglected conditions among people in developing countries. Traditional pharma firms have also made some significant strides in this direction through innovative prize funds.
So how different is Medicines360? Based on what was presented at the conference, not much. Is their model a radical departure from current models? Perhaps a comparison of their balance sheet with those of traditional pharma firms may help, but I suspect that very little would be different.
Be as it may, Medicines360 may be the first step in the direction of a conversation about business models that enable all patients when in need to access medicines.

Joao, from New Haven, CT

Multinational medicine producers are fighting government action in Turkey to reduce medicine prices. Government regulation will definitely impact the bottom line but in the bigger picture (and from a multinational perspective) how much of it is actually relevant? A loss in Turkey is subsidised by a gain in a different country and it may require a rebalancing of the tax reporting protocols for countries in which the company operates. Government regulation may also result in job losses but why do that when your competitors may find a profitable way of operating and may absorb that labour. All it does is reduce your ability to compete and increases your costs of hiring and retraining when periods of expansion roll around. Turkey’s medicine market is set to expand as are other emerging markets so all producers will benefit in the long run, so there’s no need to fight cheap medicines.  Best regards, Joao

Link to news from Turkey

You may think that Canadian and Indian pharmaceutical policy share little in common particularly with respect to what influences policymaking in each country. Think again! Both countries are under considerable pressure from the EU to include highly restrictive data exclusivity arrangements in its policy framework. The implications it has for medicine access is profound especially for low and middle-income countries. ping.fm/01ipH
Best regards, Joao

Wonderful news of Uganda’s move to expand pharmaceutical production capacity. Cipla is a key player as are local investors. I wonder how their ARV prices would compare with Indian and South African producers and if the Ugandan government is willing to pay a premier for locally produced medicines? ping.fm/lpMXX
Best regards, Joao

Nigeria’s pharma market faces various challenges. These include regulatory constraints that hopefully the new NAFDAC will outcome. Little is said though in this report of how this all impacts medicine access and use for the people other than counterfeit medicines that remain a perennial concern. ping.fm/vuGnN
Regards, Joao

This is a great overview of changes underway in the Saudi pharma sector. Their regional medicine purchasing agreement with neighboring countries is fairly unique and a wonderful model for other regions. ping.fm/TQ5q4
Best regards, Joao